With proclamation of martial law expected tomorrow evening, the Palestine garrison was increased today by arrival of battalion of troops from Egypt. Another battalion is expected tomorrow.
Belief that the already-prepared declaration of martial law would be issued tomorrow was strengthened when it was learned that military forces have been ordered to stand ready beginning tomorrow afternoon.
A military center was established at Kantara linking Palestine to Egypt. Army engineers were establishing tonight special military telephone hookups.
JEWISH BUSSES AMBUSHED
Police and soldiers rushed to Motza tonight to search for Arab marauders who ambushed a caravan of five Jewish busses en route to Jerusalem, at six o’clock this evening inflicting a leg wound on Giza Meizel, 25, a Palestinian salesgirl, who came here from Riga seven months ago. None of the other passengers was injured.
The busses were rendered virtually defenseless when the machine gun of its convoy jammed after a few shots had been fired. Four of the busses picked up speed and escaped. The fifth swerved sharply and turned over. Snipers immediately opened fire on it from both sides of the road.
All the passengers were brought to Jerusalem, where the bus was seen riddled with shots. The driver. David Shafransky, said the attackers numbered at least fifty.
One Arab was said to have been wounded today when military forces were reported to have clashed with Arabs smuggling arms into Palestine from the desert.
Auni Bey Abdul Hadi, general secretary of the Arab Strike Committee, leader of the Istiqlal Nationalist Party and chief instigator of the strike of Arab Government officials, was reported banished to a concentration camp in the Sinai desert.
Earlier, the committee decided at an urgent meeting to proclaim a strike of Arab officials this week as disorders against the Government and the Jews entered their eighth week.
Arab members of Haifa’s municipal council notified District Commissioner Edward Keith-Roach that they would resign unless Arab demands were fulfilled within ten days.
Simultaneously Jewish councillors of Haifa sent a letter to High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope protesting that the Arab councillors were putting politics before their municipal interests. They informed Sir Arthur that they would continue to serve on the council.
Arab newspapers reported “from a reliable source” that Sir Arthur was going to London to discuss the situation.
AROUSED OVER SHOOTING OF JEWS
The Jews were aroused today over the wounding by Government forces of three Jewish watchmen, one of whom died yesterday.
Police dispersed Jews attempting to attend the funeral this morning of Israel Ben Yehuda, 24, shot together with another watchman by British police at a grove near Tel Aviv when mistaken for marauding Arabs. Ben Yehuda, who came here from Esthonia in 1924, brought his parents to Palestine about two weeks ago.
Only representatives of the rabbinate, the Tel Aviv municipality and the Jewish Agency for Palestine were permitted to participate in the services, Moshe Avigdor Amiel, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and Jaffa declared in a eulogy:
“We cannot be quiet any longer. We shall have to arm ourselves.”
Berl Katznelson of the Jewish National Council said:
“Ben Yehuda was killed by those who are supposed to protect us.
There is a limit to self-restraint.”
His fellow watchman, Schmuel Hirschberg, who was originally reported mortally injured, was slightly improved after a blood transfusion. His condition was still grave.
An official communique on the incident said that the police, after finding revolvers on Hirschberg and Yehuda, searched their homes and discovered bombs and ammunition on the premises.
An official communique today said that two wireless operators of the Royal Air Force were arrested in connection with the shooting at another place of Moshe Mizrahi, 32, a newly-recruited Jewish watchman. Mizrahi was in Hadassah hospital at Tel Aviv in serious condition after an operation.
Hebrew newspapers were prohibited from printing details of the Mizrahi incident. The Hebrew labor daily, Davar, appeared today without editorials in protest against being forbidden to disclose that the three watchmen were wounded by Government forces.
The Government announced that it would permit publication of the details of the two incidents tomorrow “in reserved form.” Ben Yehuda was the thirtieth Jew to die since disorders broke out on April 19.
A rigid censorship continued in force with District Commissioner Crosbie acting censor of the Tel Aviv press. The authorities closed a printing plant in Tel Aviv for publishing a special “Blue-White” one-day paper in a limited edition containing the prohibited texts of speeches of Rabbis Amiel and Uziel at the Zionist day at the Levant Fair. The plant later reopened.
Arabs last night raided a Jewish slaughterhouse in Jerusalem and shot six oxen. Six bombs were thrown at Nazareth, Jaffa and Beisan. Shootings occurred on Mount Scopus. An Arab was arrested in Jerusalem for attacking hawkers at Jerusalem’s Jaffa gate. The telephone wire to Cairo was cut again. At Ramat Kovesh, 3,000 trees were uprooted.
Members of the Arab Strike Committee including the Grand Mufti, Mayor Khalidi of Jerusalem and Ragheb Bey Nashashibi last night rejected a proposal made to Government by Emir Abdullah, ruler of Transjordan, that the strike be continued without violence to enable a British Royal Commission to come to Palestine to make an inquiry into causes of unrest.
The delegation made clear to the Emir at Amman that the negotiations with the Government would be possible only when Jewish immigration was halted.
District Commissioner James E.F. Campbell appealed yesterday to Jerusalem’s Jewish leaders to influence Hebrew newspapers to discontinue attacks on Mayor Khalidi. He pointed out that Mayor Khalidi had prevented spread of the disturbances to Jerusalem.
ARAB KILLED AT HAIFA
One Arab was killed and another seriously wounded in Haifa yesterday morning when police fired into an Arab crowd that was demonstrating following the arrest of three Arab women.
The crowd stoned the police and troops who rushed to their assistance. Order was restored with the greatest difficulty. Troops were patrolling the streets with fixed bayonets and the situation was tense.
The situation in Haifa had suddenly turned tense following the arrest of several Arab women for intimidating vegetable vendors.
Arab snipers fired at a military guard stationed at the Lydda railway depot. Military patrols along the Jerusalem-Lydda railroad line also were the target of Arab snipers.
An armored car was shot at by Arabs near Nablus.
Shots were heard throughout the night in Jerusalem, principally in the vicinity of Mount Scopus, on which is located the Hebrew University. No casualties were reported.
A communique reported bombings of the Beersheba and Gaza post-offices.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
